Chapter 5 - ETHAN'S DAUGHTER
Ethan did not touch Sophie after the result.
That surprised me.
A man who supposedly controlled half of Chicago simply sat across the room and stared at his own hands.
I finally spoke.
“She’s still my daughter.”
His head lifted.
“I know.”
“You don’t get to walk in and take over.”
“I know.”
“You don’t decide where she lives.”
“I know.”
I stared at him.
“Stop agreeing with me.”
A small smile appeared.
Then disappeared.
“I’m trying not to scare you.”
“You are scary.”
“That’s fair.”
Sophie began fussing.
Instinctively, Ethan stood.
Then stopped himself.
He waited.
The gesture mattered more than I wanted it to.
I shifted her against my shoulder.
“How did this happen?”
“We find out.”
“And my sister?”
“We get her out.”
“How?”
His eyes became colder.
“That part I know how to do.”
By afternoon, Ethan’s people had located Elena’s wedding hotel.
Victor was gone.
Elena was still inside.
But when security reached her room, she refused to leave.
That made no sense.
I called.
She answered immediately.
“Rachel.”
“What the hell is happening?”
Silence.
“Elena?”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“You invited me!”
“I had to.”
My body went still.
“What?”
Her voice shook.
“Victor told me if I didn’t get you to Chicago, he’d expose everything.”
“What everything?”
She began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I knew about Sophie.”
My chest tightened.
“What did you know?”
“That Michael wasn’t her father.”
The room spun.
“How?”
“Mom told me.”
Our mother had been dead for three years.
I sat down.
“What did Mom tell you?”
“She worked at a fertility clinic before she got sick.”
I remembered.
Billing office.
That’s what she always said.
Elena continued.
“She discovered the clinic was doing illegal embryo and genetic procedures for wealthy clients.”
Ethan moved closer.
“She found Ethan’s records?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Victor paid someone to move his sample to California.”
I felt sick.
“Why me?”
Elena sobbed.
“That’s the part Mom never explained.”
Then someone knocked on her hotel door.
“Elena?”
She whispered.
“He’s back.”
“Get out.”
“I can’t.”
“Elena!”
The line disconnected.
Ethan was already giving orders.
Ten minutes later, we learned Victor had left through the service entrance.
But he had left something behind in Elena’s room.
A medical file.
My medical file.
Inside was a consent form with my signature.
Except I had never signed it.
The procedure listed was embryo implantation.
And beneath it, in handwriting I recognized instantly, were two initials.
M.M.
Maria Morales.
May you like
My mother.
My dead mother had authorized the procedure that created Sophie.
